


City

by Lakritzwolf



Series: Flufftober 2018 [22]
Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-22
Updated: 2018-10-22
Packaged: 2019-08-06 02:49:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 729
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16379993
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lakritzwolf/pseuds/Lakritzwolf





	City

Alec had never understood the mundanes’ view on New York, that it is something so special, because it was just a city. Just another huge collection of houses and shops and businesses filled with cars and buses and subways and people milling around like ants.

New York has never meant much more to Alec than being home in the sense of that was where he lives and works. He has been born in Idris and deployed to New York together with his sister and his parabatai. He could have been sent to Detroit, Austin, Los Angeles – it wouldn’t have mattered. The Institute might as well have been in Manhattan, Elmond, or Queens.

Lately, however, Alec’s view about New York has changed. Especially, about Brooklyn.

It’s not that Brooklyn itself is as familiar to him as the Institute, it’s what Brooklyn means to him now.

Because his view about the city in general and Brooklyn in particular has changed dramatically after meeting the high warlock of Brooklyn. And now, whatever orders would come from Idris, Alec would not accept deployment to anywhere else. Because now, Brooklyn is home to him. Or rather, a certain place in Brooklyn is home to him, more than Idris or the Institute have ever been.

Of course it is Magnus’ home first and foremost, furnished in his style and taste, infused with his personality and his profession. But during the time they have been together, small things have changed, things that make the place Alec’s, too.

Pictures, for example. Pictures of Alec and Magnus in Paris, in Hong Kong, in Venice, in San Francisco, in Moscow, in Barcelona. And small things like the books that Alec likes to buy for Magnus, or the picture he had come across at a garage sale Simon had dragged them into. It isn’t worth anything, it isn’t from a great artist, but Alec had liked it and had been sure that Magnus would like it too. He had, and it now has a place on the wall above one of the couches.

As opposed to the decorative porcelain figure Alec had bought in the beginning, when he hadn’t been so sure of Magnus’ taste. He had seen that Magnus had only accepted it because it was a gift from Alec, and not so long afterwards Alec had ‘accidentally’ broken it while retrieving a pillow that had fallen from the couch. Magnus had tried his best to not look relieved, because it had been a gift.

_“I know you hated that thing. You could have said so.”_  
_“It was a gift from you, Alexander.”_  
_“But you hated it.”_  
_A long pause. And then, a relieved: “Yes, by god, I hated it. It was horrible.”_

They had laughed about it, and sometimes still do.

And then of course there is the shelf in the wardrobe for the clothes that Alec has stored at Magnus’ place, and the fact that Magnus now brews his shampoo in larger bottles.

That apartment in Brooklyn has become a safe haven to him. He can truly unwind here, be himself, and have no one constantly demand his attention. He can just sit there on the couch or in an armchair and stare holes into space, and Magnus would just sit somewhere and read and sip his tea. The silence is never uncomfortable.

Yes, Brooklyn is home now. Walking through the streets now conjures up memories, memories of him and Magnus during those moments when it is just them and the city. They have eaten pasta here in this little Italian restaurant, and have had more than one coffee in that coffee shop on the corner there. Then of course there have been countless dates in the Hunter’s Moon, and he knows the way to Magnus’ house so well he could walk it with his eyes closed.

And standing here, on the balcony, looking at the city that never sleeps, he feels at peace. And he thanks the fates that the Clave hadn’t sent him to Los Angeles, or Detroit, or Austin, but to Brooklyn.

And when he stands next to Magnus on the balcony and looks down at the sea of golden and colourful dots of light against the dark silhouettes of houses and skyscrapers and the Brooklyn Bridge, he wouldn’t trade this view for any other in the world.

Because he is at home here.


End file.
